"How does she ride? Why she shames the gulls." So said skipper Ben Pine of the GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD, last of the great Gloucester fishing schooners. Designed by Frank Paine and launched March 17, 1930 from the Arthur D. Story yard in nearby Essex, she was the pride of Gloucester throughout the thirties and the most formidable competitor to ever challenge the legendary Canadian schooner BLUENOSE in the popular Fisherman's races.
Emile Gruppe, whose studio was in Rocky Neck in east Gloucester, has painted the "GERTIE T." charging to windward with her sheets hauled taut. Water pours over her leeward rail as her crew all line the high side to windward. In a splendid illustration of the beauty and power of her massive rig, the schooner's top hamper is loaded to the maximum, set with both topsails, a huge fisherman staysail and her flying jib.
Painted in the late 1960's this work is a copy of the picture presented to President Franklin Roosevelt and hung over his desk in the white house after the final fishermen races in 1938. In both mood and subject, Gruppe has provided a nostalgic portrait of the final days of fishing under sail as the last of her kind bears off towards the horizon on a blustery New England day.
